First Christmas
by WOWZAcoolBEANS
Summary: Christmas is a family holiday. Gilbert did not think he had one until his first one working in the Vessalius household. /Merry Christmas, Smeepalicious!/


**Title:** First Christmas

**Synopsis:** Christmas is a family holiday. Gilbert did not think he had one until his first one working in the Vessalius household. /Merry Christmas, Smeepalicious!/

**Rating: **K

**A/N**: Short, sweet and to the point. This is a Christmas present for my dearest sister Smeepalicious, which is why I'm writing Gilbert and Oz (neither of which I am able to write very well). So I hope you enjoy this and your holidays (no matter what you're celebrating: Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza, Festivus, Saturnalia, etc.) and a happy new year.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own _Pandora Hearts_, its characters or anything else I might miss in this thing.

…

Gilbert stared into the fire as it crackled, flames dancing from log to log, never enough to make him truly warm, but always enough to keep him from being too cold. Downstairs, people laughed. They sounded so happy; Gilbert could not say that he felt the same way.

Christmas was supposed to be about family, but for an orphan without family or even memories of one, it was the loneliest day that he had suffered through since he came to the Vessalius household. Oz was a true and fair master, someone who Gilbert—in the few short months that he had been Oz's servant—loved to be with, longed to be like and lived to serve. But Oz was not Gilbert's family. Nor was Ada or Uncle Oscar, no matter he longed for them to be so. There would be no place at the Vessalius Christmas table for a lowly servant like Gilbert.

The other servants had invited Gilbert to help with the dinner, or partake in the Christmas dinner that they—well, at least the ones without families of their own—cooked and served down in the kitchen. Gilbert had declined. Maybe it was because he didn't want to be pitied. Maybe it was because he wasn't sure how he should have acted if he were to go; didn't know how to feign happiness when he had to pretend.

"It's not too bad," Gilbert whispered to himself with a half-smile. "I could be on fire." He looked again into the dancing flames ad shivered; maybe he was a little cold. He stood up, hugging his arms around his torso to keep warm and walked out of the room to get another piece of firewood—his room was out—from a bin that was kept at the end of the hallway. Carrying the wood, he entered the room again only to drop it the moment he walked in.

"Now what did you go and do that for, Gilbert? You're so useless I can barely stand it." Oz chuckled as he stood up from the floor in front of the fire and came to help Gilbert pick up the wood that he had dropped.

Too shocked to help, Gilbert could only stutter and stare as Oz did his work for him. "Ma-ma-master O-Oz? Wha… what are you doing here?" Wasn't it just minutes ago that Oz was downstairs with his family, laughing and playing about? What Gilbert wanted was for Oz to be happy; there was no way that visiting a useless person like himself would make Oz happy…

"I've come to give you your Christmas gift, of course!" Gilbert looked around; there was nothing there. Oz—being the ever-watchful kid that he was—noticed his friend looking around. "It's not here, of course, silly Gilbert. It's downstairs where all the other presents are. You didn't come down yourself so Ada _insisted_ that I come get you and bring you down, whether you wanted to or not." Oz sighed with a dramatic flare and shrugged. "Since she's the boss, I had to listen to her."

For a moment, Gilbert was speechless. And then, Gilbert was astonished. "Would you… really want me there?" There was so much happiness within Gilbert that moment that he could barely stand it. The thought that he was wanted, was _needed_, made him happier than any other Christmas gift ever could. But of course, insecurity plagued him. There was still a chance that this was all a joke. "I'm just a servant, and you're-"

"Of course _I_ don't want you there." Gilbert's face fell. "I need you to be there! Who else will I torture?" Oz grinned upon seeing Gilbert's face. "Besides, you're family now, and family sticks together on Christmas. Jeesh, Gil, are you really so stupid that you don't know that?"

Oz held out his hand and Gilbert took it… and then was sub sequentially dragged out of his comfortable bedroom down to the dining room where he had Christmas dinner with Oscar, Ada and Oz—a few days later, Gilbert would swear to the other servants that it was the most delicious meal that he had ever tasted—and had one of the best nights of his entire life. And, when he woke-up the next morning to Oz jumping on his bed, he found that Santa Claus had visited him, too.

The presents didn't matter. Nor did the delicious food or the beautiful tree. What mattered was the look on Ada's face when she proudly presented him with a drawing that she had done of him and the grin on Uncle Oscar's when he received the present that Gil had saved up his pennies for weeks to buy for him. And what mattered was the way that Oz grabbed Gilbert's shoulder and said, "Merry Christmas!" just like he was part of the family.

…

_Fin_


End file.
